Untitled 51
by The Familiar
Summary: A creature from Irks' past appears on Earth.
1. prologue

Many aeons ago, on a small planet, there lived two separate species. One called themselves "the people from/of/owning (much is lost in translation) the planet". The title was often shortened to "Irken", after the planet in question.

The other species preyed on the Irkens. They had no name, no grand designs, no pretensions, not much of anything. They didn't even have solid forms. They lived in the shadows, hunting in groups, earning themselves the moniker of "shadowy pack hunters", or "spith" as one aspiring Irken shortened the name to. Feeding not only on the flesh and blood of the Irkens, but also on the fear that they caused in the smaller, less malleable species.

Eventually, though, the Irkens grew more civilised. They developed first fires, then artificial lighting to destroy the shadows that the creatures lived in. They then developed first ways of repelling the monsters, then ways of destroying them altogether. In time, the once feared creatures became stories told to the children as a way of scaring them into submission.

Eventually, the last few remaining spith were forced further and further away from civilisation, and given less room as the civilisation expanded to cover the whole planet. This continued on until the only way they could survive was to leave the planet, and go somewhere unexplored, that no Irkens would ever go to, or even hear of.


	2. episode 1

'And this not only proves that the Titanic was sunk by a whale, but also that Zim is an alien!' Dib looked out on the class of bored and disbelieving children.

'You're stupid.' The letter M shouted out from the second row.

'You're whales and...' Zim waved a hand in the air, 'aliens are stupid and pointless. Just like your big head.'

The room started laughing and agreeing with Zim.

Miss Bitters glared at them all. The only thing she couldn't stand more than sunshine was the sound of children laughing. 'Dib, you failed your assignment. This had nothing to do with the colonial revolution. Now sit down and stop breathing.'

'Yes, Miss Bitters.' Dib said, dragging his feet on the way to his chair, where he sat. He defied Miss Bitter's orders by continuing breathing, though. It had been a bad day when Willie followed her orders and got brain damage from oxygen starvation.

-----

Dib left skool that afternoon with thoughts of the Mysterious Mysteries-a-thon that was going to be on that night running through his head. They were going to showing the best episodes, and Dib knew his episode was going to be on again. It had been voted number 1 in a watchers poll.

He wasn't even suspecting the attack that came from behind him.

'Hey look!' Torque shouted, pulling Dibs coat off and putting it on himself. 'I'm Dib', he said in a dumb voice, 'and I think aliens and ghosts are real.' He started dancing around in front of the other kids, earning roars of laughter.

'Hey!' Dib said. 'Give me my coat back! You're stretching it out of shape!' There were already tears in the back seams as it tried to fit around Torques more muscular frame.

'I'm Dib.' Torque continued on. 'And I'm a girl, with long hair.'

Dib sighed and walked off, with Torque continuing on in the background. He had other jackets at home, and the day wasn't so cold he couldn't walk home in his t-shirt. At least he had the Mysterious Mysteries-a-thon to look forward to.

-----

Torque got fed up with the game a few minutes after Dib left. He tried to pull the jacket off, but found he couldn't remove it. Maybe he should cut down on the Membrane inc. Super-Toast.

He started trudging off down the road. He could always get his mum to cut it off when he got home. Then he could shove the remains into Dibs locker and watch him cry. That would be fun, and it would give everybody something to laugh at.

He itched at his arm, where it had been touching Dibs jacket. He was probably allergic to Dibs germs or stupidity, or something. He should probably get it off soon, so he didn't swell up and choke like his sister had when she was bitten by a bee.

He started to run, itching at his arms as he went. When he felt something wet on his fingers he stopped running and brought them up to his face. There was red liquid coating the tips of them. He screamed when he realised it was blood. It was his blood, and the itching had become a burning.

He started scratching at his arms and his back, plus his check and his neck. Everywhere the coat had been touching was burning. He fell down onto the path, and started spasming in pain. His body was burning up! It was like he was getting eaten by acid!

A few seconds later, Torque stood up again. This Torque was slightly different, though. Not only could he shed the coat easily, but he was a few shades greyer than Torque usually was, and was wearing a large brimmed hat, that hadn't been there a few seconds before. He was also waving slightly as he stood. After a few seconds he pulled himself together and continued on his way, this time whistling a jaunty tune, the likes of which had never been heard on earth before.

The coat stayed behind on the ground. If anybody had picked it up, they would have noticed it was covering a large puddle of blood, and some strands of brown hair.


	3. episode 2

Sorry for any spelling errors these next chapters have, but I don't have a spell-check program.

- -- --- ----- - - -

Torque arrived early at skool the next morning. He had just needed to get away from the family. Or at least that's what he told his friends when they all arrived fifteen minutes before the warning siren.

'Hey TOrque. You're looking a bit sick. Didn't study for the test today?' ONe of his friends joked at him.

Torque grunted at him. 'Ate some bad milk.'

'Ewww. Well, don't puke on me. And what's with the hat? Trying to bring them back?' Something distracted his attention. 'Look, it's that freak, Dib. He's got a new coat from yesterday. How about we make it a bit dirtier?'

Torque looked over uninterestedly. 'Nah. I'm bored of him.' He looked around and spotted Zim. 'I want to beat up the green kid.'

'Zim? He's fun, too. I like the way he screams.'

Torque grinned. He would enjoy Zims screams, too. He strolled over to behind Zim and tapped him on the shoulder. 'Hey, Zim.'

Zim turned around. 'What do /you/ want?'

Torque grinned nastily. 'You're standing in front of my locker, Zim. Doesn't it just /irk/ you when people do that?'

'What are you talking about. This isn't your locker.' Zim looked around in confusion. 'Your locker's over there.' He pointed towards the other side of the hall.

'But I find it so /irksome/ to have to go all the way over there when I want my stuff.'

Zim fidgeted slightly. Why did the human keep on repeating that word? Did it know anything about him? He had always placed this human as a low-level threat, not worth considering.

Dib was looking over in interest. Did Torque realise Zim was from Irk? Would he have an ally to help him on his quest to save humanity?

'Come on, man. Just shove him in his locker or something. Don't talk to him.' Torques friend was tired of the talking. He wanted action.

'You're not going to tell me what to do.' Torque calmly said to his friend, then he slammed his fist to the side of Zims head, blocking him from his attempt to sneak away quietly. 'You're not going anywhere, either.'

'Let me go.' He said, trying to go round the other side of Torque, only to have the other hand hold his shoulder down to the wall.

'I should let you go.' Torque said. 'You might be late for class.' Then he picked Zim up, and pushed him inside of an open locker, then closed the door. 'Or, I could put you inside Gretchens locker. And she wouldn't open it again, would you, Gretchen?' He smiled at her. SHe shook her head. He knew her name, and she had already taken all her books out.

'Hey!' Zim shouted, banging on the door. 'Let me out of here!' He wasn't large, but the locker was still a bit too small for comfort. He couldn't see. It was too dark, and small. 'Hey! Hey! DOn't leave me in here!' He then added in a small voice: 'It's dark in here.'

Torque banged on the door, much to Zims displeasure. 'What's the matter Zim? Scared of a few shadows?'

Then the Siren went, and Zim was left alone in the hall, still banging on the door to the locker.

-----

Zim finally extricated himself from the locker when he remembered that his PAK had laser attachments. They were usually the last thing he forgot about, but he had been put off by the way Torque had been talking. He got into class 10 minutes late.

'You're late, Zim.' Miss Bitters hissed. 'You're going to be punished for this.'

Zim nodded 'I will accept whatever punishment you view as acceptable.'

'Just sit down.' Miss Bitters couldn't stand it when they didn't beg for mercy.

Zim sat down and looked about the classroom. Dib was there, staring at him. Stupid, staring human. Torque was over there, sleeping. Wait! Torque wasn't sleeping! He was watching Zim behind his eyelids.

Zim turned back towards the front of the class, and used a small spying tool from inside his PAK to watch Torque. He was watching Zim. Why? What had the human found out? How had he found out? Zim would need to be clever about how to get the information out of the human. If only he still had Pustulio...

-----

When Zim made it to the cafeteria at lunch he cursed. DIb had gotten to the Torque human first. He sat down at a table nearby and listened into the conversation...

'Hey Torque.' Dib said conversationally. He didn't want to scare him away by mentioning aliens too early.

Torque looked down at Dib. 'Oh, it's you.' He put his lunch on the table. 'What do you want?'

'I overheard your conversation with Zim this morning, and I thought we could work together.'

Torque looked down at Dib. He had spent alot of time with this child, and though he was capable, he wouldn't be of any use. Might as well humour him, though. 'Work together? How?'

'You could help me catch Zim! You know he's an evil alien.'

'You're being stupid. You couldn't help me. And Zim's not alien.' He added as an afterthought, just to make Dib go away.

'But, this morning you...' Dib sighed. If he was going to deny it there was no use trying. 'Fine. I'll go away now.' He glared at Zim as he passed the table he was sitting at, then went and sat with Gaz. 'Can you believe these people?' He looked at her. 'Well, can you?'

Gaz turned and glared at him. 'Dib, I'm on the last level and only have six lives. If you distract me again, I will destroy all your Mysterious Mysteries tapes.' Dib gulped. She was serious. 'But, no.' She added. 'I can't believe these people.'

-----

'Class.' Miss Bitters hissed, after all the kids had come back in from lunch, 'the school curriculum states there must be at least one group activity per semester. It shall be a presentation on the ten diseases with the highest death rate. Pair yourselves up, but if I see anybody smiling, you'll be placed with Dib. You have the rest of today top work on it, but that's the only class time you'll be given. Now go.' SHe sat back down in her chair and watched the children scamper about. 'Zita.' She called out. 'I see you with a friend. Go sit with Gretchen.'

Dib gasped. He had been given the greatest opportunity of all to spy on Zim! He leapt out of his chair, just in time to see Torque grab Zims wrist. 'Nooooo!' He cried out, falling to his knees.

'Dib.' Miss Bitters said. 'You're the only one without a partner. You'll go with Willie.'

'So Zim,' Torque said, when the skool day was nearly over. 'I think we should work on this project after skool. Why don't we go to your house to work on it. I'm sure you'd have all sorts of interesting things in there.'

'Uhhh.' Zim didn't want any more humans in his base. The Keef incident had been enough. 'WHy don't we go to your house, or the library. I'm sure the library would be useful. All those delicious books.'

'Nonsense. We'd be much better off at your house.' The siren rang. 'Come on. I know the way.' He grabbed Zims wrist and dragged him out the door.

--- - -- --- --

Yes, irk is a real word.


	4. episode 3

Torch= flashlight.

Lift= elevator.

- -- - - -- ---

Zim let out a breath when they arrived at his base. GIR was out, which meant he couldn't give Zim away. Or, at least, give him away any more than he already was. How had this stupid human found out? He had mae it very clear while they were walking that he knew Zim wasn't a regular human.

'Stay here.' Zim said, indicating the front room. 'I'll go and get paper and stuff.' He went into the kitchen and searched through cupboards until he found GIR's drawing tools. Why couldn't that robot be moore like any other SIR unit? or even like an Irken? Instead he had to "draw" and "dance."

Torque grinned when Zim left the room. He shed the clothes he had been wearing, then slid through the cracks in the floor. 'Where are you going?' The computer asked him.

'To the power core.' He replied, still sliding down through layers of metal tubing.

'Oh. Well, it's more to your left.' Torque accepted the directions and veered slightly. The computer internally grinned. That was his good deed for the day.

-----

Zim dragged the equipment out to the front room, still grumbling about GIR. 'Eh?' he said, when he turned around. 'Torque? Where are you?' Stupid human! This wasn't the time to be playing games. 'Get out here right now!' Zim waited for TOrque to respond. 'Computer! Where did the Torque beast go?'

'Subject: Torque is currently on his way to the power core. Torque has al-'

'What!?' Zim interrupted the computer, 'He's going to the power core?! Computer! Take me to the power core!'

Computer shrugged and carried Zim down. At least he had tried to tell Zim that Torque was a grey shape-shifting blob, but it wasn't his fault that his master had ignored him.

Zim lost his balance when the lift jerked to a halt, and the lights went out. 'Eh? Computer, what are you doing?' He asked from the floor. He didn't get a response. 'Computer? What are you doing?' THe computer still didn't answer. 'Computer?' He stopped for a few seconds. 'Oh. The power's been cut. Stupid computer. You should have stopped the human.' He brought out his lasers and blasted a hole in the side of the lift. 'I'll have to get there myself.'

Zim went throught the hole and shone his torch around, finding he was in the hologram room. 'Close!' But he was still 50 metres above the power core room, and too far to the right. He went to the door and pressed the button that opened it.

'Why won't you open!?' He shouted at it. Then he gave a slight laugh. 'Power's out.' He levered the door open with his spiderlegs and stood in the corridor, looking about. Left was that way, and he was sure there was a lift shaft he could blast a hole into and climb down to reach the power core room.

He walked down the hall, tapping on the walls occasionally. The shaft had to be around here somewhere. He just had to think of a suitable torture for the Torque human. He had always wanted to know the side effects eating too much had on humans, but had never had a specimen to test on. It would be humourous to see the child burst open like the balloon GIR had once. He had just kept on blowinng it up, fuller and fuller, until it popped, making GIR cry and forcing Zim to buy him a new balloon, and blow it up himself. Imagine that, a fully traned Irken soldier reduced to blowing up balloons for his SIR unit.

Zim continued tapping on the walls, still not hearing the echo that would suggest the lift shaft was nearby. Maybe the coomputer had moved it when it was cleaning. Stupid computer, had to clean up every Spring. Said it was traditional. 'Tradition! Ha!' Zim then looked about embarrased. Luckily nobody was around to hear him.

He had started tapping on the other side of the hallway when his torch started to flicker. He looked down at it, confused. Irken products don't break, and it was stocked with Everlast batteries. They never failed. Put the Vortian company out of business, but that was their problem.

He pulled out the batteries and looked at them, squinting to see with just the regular ocular implants. Stupid GIR had stolen his night vision goggles. 'These are human batteries!' GIR must have taken his Everlast's and replaced them with inferior human batteries. Zim threw them to the ground, then threw the torch after them. "stupid GIR!' he shouted, banging on the walls.

'Oooooh' he banged on the wall again. It was hollow! This was where the lift shaft was. He was about to burn a hole in the wall when he felt... things grab him around the waist and pull him back against a soft, squishy surface.

'Aaaaah!' Zim screamed, before a tentacle entered his mouth, stifling his cries.

'Shhhh, Zim, shhhhh.' Zim heard, or at least, thought he heard. The words were definately there, but he didn't know where they had come from. 'Don't panic, though the taste of your fear is so very, very sweet. I now understand what they all were on about' A tentacle wound up Zims back, sliding behind the PAK and threatening to pull it voice moaned at the increase of fear from Zim. He reluctantly removed the tentacle. 'But i was always told not to play with my food. Do you know what I am, Zim?' He removed the tentacle from Zims mouth.

'Who are you!? How did you get in here? What are you talking about? I'm not food.' Zim started thrashing about. The creature held him tighter, threatening to snap something if Zim moved again.

'I am a Spith, though you may know me as Torque Smacky. I-'

'Torque! I knew there was something odd about him.' Then the rest of the sentence caught up with Zim. 'A, A Spith? But you're nothing but stories told to us by army trainers. You're all dead, or you don't exist. You can-' He was cut off by a tentacle being shoved into his mouth, choking off his words.

'I've only been Torque for a day, so anything strange was just him. And concerning your objections, I do exist and I am here. There aren't many of us left, though, and we've been living off these /humans/.' He said the word with disgust. 'You can just imagine my surprise when I found an Irken living here. I've only heard about you lot. But from what I've tasted so far, the tales aren't wrong. i have also heard that one Irken can last for months, or even years, if you eat them sparingly, and let everything grow back. I'll have to see if their right about that one, too.'

Zim stared up a muffled protest. He was an invader! He wasn't food for some dead fantasy creature!

'What's that? I can't eat you? Why don't we find out?' Zim felt his left hand get engulfed by the same substance that the creature was made of. His hand started burning, as if it was being placed in a big vat of water. He started screaming as the burning continued, his screams echoing louder than the moans of pleasure coming from the spith.


	5. episode 4

Final chapter!

- -- ------ ---

Zim managed to pull away after the spith ate his hand. It had relaxed while digesting its meal, and Zim fell to the floor, cradling his bleeding stump. "It would grow back", he told himself, while he edged towards the wall. Now was his time to get away from the nightmare creature.

He burnt a hole in the wall, watching the Spith the entire time. It looked like it was asleep, but Zim decided not to take any chances, and silently climbed down the lift shaft. He winced when his spiderleg grated against the wall and produced a harsh metallic noise. He sighed when he made it to the bottom of the shaft. He could turn the power back on, and then... and then... and then he would do something. He would kill the creature, though he didn't quite know how to do that.

He felt his way along the wall towards the power controls. He found it, and scrabbled around on the surface for the on/off button. He found it a pressed it, waiting to hear the sounds of everything booting up and powering on. The faint hum of electricity in the walls. After five minutes of waiting nothing happened.

Zim pressed the button again. Still nothing. Maybe something was wrong with the machine. Zim bent down and opened the inspection hatch, cursing at the lack of light. He sighed, there was only one thing he could do. He opened his PAK and brought out a box of matches GIR had given him. He lit one and looked inside the inspection hatch.

There was the problem; some of the wires had been cut. It would just be a simple matter to join them back together using the equipment and spare wire he had in his PAK. He then dropped the match as it was starting to burn his fingers.

He lit another match, then came across a problem. He would need one hand to hold the match, and another hand to hold the wires together. That was his normal amount of hands, but it was currently one more than he actually had. His PAK arms weren't delicate enough to hold the wire, or the match. He would have to sacrifice his light, but he was sure he could do it in the dark. Why wouldn't he be able to? He was Zim, so he could do anything.

He put the match out, and grabbed a piece of wire. If he looked hard enough, he could see the end of one loose strand. He held the wire next to the loose end he was going to attach it to, then put on his welding goggles. It wouldn't do to be blind when the lights finally came back on. His soldering iron then came out of his PAK, and he was delighted to see that the glow from the end was bright enough for him to be able to join the loose ends together accurately.

It was then a relatively quick and easy job to fix the machine. When it was done, Zim jumped up and happily slammed down the button. After a few minutes he heard a humming in the walls, and a few minutes after that the lights flickered back on.

Zim leaned against the control panel when the lights came on. Now he could see, all he had to do was try and find out how to kill that creature up in the hallway above him. He looked down at the floor and winced. There was a lot of green blood leading in a path from the hole he had made in the wall to where he was now. He looked down at his hand and winced. THis was the first time he had seen it, and though it was a clean cut, it still wasn't good to be able to see your own bones, nerves, veins, arteries, dermal layer... Zim ran over to a corner and vomited, then ripped a piece of lining from his shirt and used it to wrap over the wound, just so he wouldn't have to see it again. 'Computer.' He ordered hoarsly, 'clean that mess up.' A bucket came down from the ceiling but Zim didn't stop to watch.

He went back to the control panel and sat down in front of it, leaning his back against it. WHat killed those creatures, the Spith?

He tried to remember back to the tales whispered during free time when he was a smeet under Irk, and the threats yelled at him by higher ranking soldiers. From what he remembered they came out at night, and during the day they stayed in the shadows. A training captain had actually tied him up outside one night, just to teach him a lesson. It had been scary, but their hadn't been any Spith. There was also something about light in the stories. Wasn't it a smeet story that once-upon-a-time a little boy had killed one using a magnifying glass? Maybe he could kill it using a magnifying glass. But there was something else, too. A magnifying glass and...

Trying to remember was too hard. He'd just go and shoot it with the strongest laser he had.

-----

AFter Zim made the computer promise not to let anyone into the power core room (except for Zim, of course), he went up to weapons storage. He had to find the biggest laser he had. He remembered it being around there somewhere, in his locked cabinet.

He opened the cabinet door and looked in. There, at the very top, was his gun. It was almost as big as he was, and just a bit thinner than the thinnest part of his waist. He used his spider legs to reach up to the top to grab it, then held it very carefully. He then lowered himself to the floor and stroked it lovingly. The others at the academy had laughed when he got it, and said he was overcompensating because he was so short. He had ignored them and put a hole the size of a voot cruiser in the roof. They didn't laugh at his gun after that.

After Zim had stopped reminiscing about the past he set the levels. WIdest field of damage, highest damage. This would kill anything that got in his way, especially some shadow crawling myth beast.

'Computer!' he shouted, 'where is the Spith creature?'

'Spith is heading towards the power core. I will keep him out for as long as I can.'

'Good.' Zim said. He went to the lift. 'Take me down to him.' The computer followed his instructions and carried Zim and his laser down to meet the Spith.

-----

The door opened upp to an empty hall. Zim poked his head out and looked around. THe creature didn't seem to be there at all.

He left the lift and walked a few steps along the corridor. Where was that blob? 'Spith.' He shouted, 'Come here.'

He took a few more steps along the corridor, then turned around quickly. He had thought he was being followed, but there was nothing there. He held the gun up higher, and started walking backwards. He heard a slight noise behind him, so turned around and fired. All he managed to do with that was melt the walls.

'Where are you, Spith?' He called, taking a step backwards. He frowned; the piece of floor felt less level than the other parts. He then put the thought aside and took another step back. When he tried to take the third step he found that his foot wouldn't move. It seemed stuck. He looked down and saw that his boot was covered in a grey material. 'Spith.' He whispered.

He aimed his gun down and made the field of damage smaller, more precise. Then he fired just to the left of his boot. Nothing. He fired to the right of his boot. still nothing. He turned around and fired at the back of his boot. THis caused the Spith to emit a scream of pain, and leap further up Zims leg.

Zim stopped. If he shot the Spith, he would also be shooting his own foot, but if he didn't, it would eat him, or save him to be eaten later. Zim took a deep breath. There was only one thing he could do. He aimed downwards and shot his own foot off.

As Zim fell back with a scream of pain, he notoced he was blocked off by the wail emitted by the spith. He must have killed it. It wasn't there anymore; there was only a blackened piece of foot. He shook his leg to dislodge the rest of the creature, and it fell off into a heap on the ground.

'Computer.' Zim ordered, somewhat breathlessly, 'clean up the remains of it, and place it into a chicken cannon. Then take me to the infirmary.'

'Yes, sir.' The computer ordered, taking out a dustpan and brush and sweeping up the part of it that fell off Zims leg. Zim nodded and the computer sucked Zim up into a tube.

Then the computer sighed. It was easy enough cleaning off that part, but what about the rest of the corridor? It was coated in the creature.

'And computer!' Zim shouted from the infirmary, 'finish the assignment that I had to do. I want it to get me a B grade!'

Computer sighed again. He could clean off Torque easily enough, given time, but getting a B grade in Miss Bitters class would be impossible.


End file.
